“The Motto ‘A Window to Europe’ Has Grown Obsolete — a New Mission is Needed,” Sergey Voronkov Spoke at the SPIEF Conference on Tourism Development

On June 18, a discussion session “Tourism as an Influence on the Image, Socio-Economic Development, and Investment Attractivity of a Region” took place in the framework of the 25th Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Among its participants were leading specialists in the field of tourism, passenger transportation, authorities and MICE industry, including Sergey Voronkov, CEO of ExpoForum International, and Sergey Korneev, Chairman of the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development.

“We consistently move toward comprehensive development of domestic tourism,” Sergey Korneev assumes. “A lot of work has been done already to improve the tourism infrastructure in the Northwestern Federal District, and even 10 years ago there was no such convenient transport communication, no routes. As of now, one can always come back to St. Petersburg to arrange recreation time as they like: as holidays spent with children, youth recreation time, or a short weekend. Today a tourist might arrive to St. Petersburg, tomorrow they will take a commuter train to Vyborg or will go to Karelia or Pskov. We can offer a huge range of combinations,” he elaborated.

Sergey Voronkov, CEO of ExpoForum International, spoke on the influence of business tourism on the city and country economy. “The motto ‘a window to Europe’ has grown obsolete — a new mission is needed. Were Peter here right now, he would call St. Petersburg a portal to the world, an event capital. Our city has outranked Moscow by the number of events for the first time. In the global rating of 520 European destinations St. Petersburg ranks 40th. Business tourism needs to be developed further, since according to ICCA, at the average it takes a business tourist 7 days to have a trip and they spend 3–4 times as much money as a common tourist — up to $4,500 daily, about 300,000 rubles. A direct contribution of the convention industry in the city budget amounts to at least 2 bln. rubles. Nowadays, according to the Register of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs, 139 companies operate in the convention and exhibition market of St. Petersburg. The indirect effect of contracts concluded during conventions and exhibitions and their input in the city GRP amounts to at least 200 bln. rubles. Also, these events support tourist activity during the low season, and for St. Petersburg it means 8 months per year!” Sergey Voronkov concluded.

Olesya Oleinikova, Deputy CEO of Profi Travel, shared some statistics of the tourist flow in 2021–2022. “After the pandemic the number of tourists in St. Petersburg has reduced, and currently the situation in this area is challenging again. We have two scenarios: a basic one and a positive one. The basic one is to keep the indicators of 2021. We can’t exclude the chance that the tourist flow from friendly countries will reduce because of the crisis. The positive one is the growth of the tourist number up to 7 or 8 mln. people per year due to MICE events, the tourist cashback program,” the speaker explained.

Roman Golovanov, Chairman of the Investment Committee, spoke on attractive and developing projects on the territory of St. Petersburg. These include the Island of Forts and the Gorskaya Area.

Elena Rakova, First Deputy Head of the Passenger Transportation Department (CL), Russian Railways OJSC, presented sightseeing and tourist routes by railway across Russia at the conference: “In total, 30 specialized routes have been developed at the moment, and 10 of them account for the Northwestern Federal District. We have such offers as a dinner in a retro train and the Winter Fairy Tale — a 41 day long route of Father Frost across the country.”

Leonid Sergeev, CEO of Northern Capital Gateway, a managing company of the Pulkovo Airport, spoke about the dynamics of transportation over the last years. Thus, in 2019, a record was set in the air haven of the Neva River city — 20 mln. passengers used the services of the airport. “The 7th freedom traffic rights and e-visas have appeared in Pulkovo which allowed making many international flights from the airport. Then the pandemic hit, the passenger flow declined twofold, but in 2021 already we went back to the bar of 18 mln. people, i.e. our normal indicator. Now the situation is challenging again, but we hope to keep the flow due to an increased number of domestic flights and flights from friendly countries. We hope, the transport availability of the airport will improve, rail communication will appear as well as new road junctions. There are plans to build a new terminal,” Leonid Sergeev said.

More than 15 speakers took part in the conference. The event was moderated by Veronika Strizhak, a well-known Russian TV hostess.

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“The Motto ‘A Window to Europe’ Has Grown Obsolete — a New Mission is Needed,” Sergey Voronkov Spoke at the SPIEF Conference on Tourism Development

On June 18, a discussion session “Tourism as an Influence on the Image, Socio-Economic Development, and Investment Attractivity of a Region” took place in the framework of the 25th Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Among its participants were leading specialists in the field of tourism, passenger transportation, authorities and MICE industry, including Sergey Voronkov, CEO of ExpoForum International, and Sergey Korneev, Chairman of the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development.

“We consistently move toward comprehensive development of domestic tourism,” Sergey Korneev assumes. “A lot of work has been done already to improve the tourism infrastructure in the Northwestern Federal District, and even 10 years ago there was no such convenient transport communication, no routes. As of now, one can always come back to St. Petersburg to arrange recreation time as they like: as holidays spent with children, youth recreation time, or a short weekend. Today a tourist might arrive to St. Petersburg, tomorrow they will take a commuter train to Vyborg or will go to Karelia or Pskov. We can offer a huge range of combinations,” he elaborated.

Sergey Voronkov, CEO of ExpoForum International, spoke on the influence of business tourism on the city and country economy. “The motto ‘a window to Europe’ has grown obsolete — a new mission is needed. Were Peter here right now, he would call St. Petersburg a portal to the world, an event capital. Our city has outranked Moscow by the number of events for the first time. In the global rating of 520 European destinations St. Petersburg ranks 40th. Business tourism needs to be developed further, since according to ICCA, at the average it takes a business tourist 7 days to have a trip and they spend 3–4 times as much money as a common tourist — up to $4,500 daily, about 300,000 rubles. A direct contribution of the convention industry in the city budget amounts to at least 2 bln. rubles. Nowadays, according to the Register of the Russian Union of Exhibitions and Fairs, 139 companies operate in the convention and exhibition market of St. Petersburg. The indirect effect of contracts concluded during conventions and exhibitions and their input in the city GRP amounts to at least 200 bln. rubles. Also, these events support tourist activity during the low season, and for St. Petersburg it means 8 months per year!” Sergey Voronkov concluded.

Olesya Oleinikova, Deputy CEO of Profi Travel, shared some statistics of the tourist flow in 2021–2022. “After the pandemic the number of tourists in St. Petersburg has reduced, and currently the situation in this area is challenging again. We have two scenarios: a basic one and a positive one. The basic one is to keep the indicators of 2021. We can’t exclude the chance that the tourist flow from friendly countries will reduce because of the crisis. The positive one is the growth of the tourist number up to 7 or 8 mln. people per year due to MICE events, the tourist cashback program,” the speaker explained.

Roman Golovanov, Chairman of the Investment Committee, spoke on attractive and developing projects on the territory of St. Petersburg. These include the Island of Forts and the Gorskaya Area.

Elena Rakova, First Deputy Head of the Passenger Transportation Department (CL), Russian Railways OJSC, presented sightseeing and tourist routes by railway across Russia at the conference: “In total, 30 specialized routes have been developed at the moment, and 10 of them account for the Northwestern Federal District. We have such offers as a dinner in a retro train and the Winter Fairy Tale — a 41 day long route of Father Frost across the country.”

Leonid Sergeev, CEO of Northern Capital Gateway, a managing company of the Pulkovo Airport, spoke about the dynamics of transportation over the last years. Thus, in 2019, a record was set in the air haven of the Neva River city — 20 mln. passengers used the services of the airport. “The 7th freedom traffic rights and e-visas have appeared in Pulkovo which allowed making many international flights from the airport. Then the pandemic hit, the passenger flow declined twofold, but in 2021 already we went back to the bar of 18 mln. people, i.e. our normal indicator. Now the situation is challenging again, but we hope to keep the flow due to an increased number of domestic flights and flights from friendly countries. We hope, the transport availability of the airport will improve, rail communication will appear as well as new road junctions. There are plans to build a new terminal,” Leonid Sergeev said.

More than 15 speakers took part in the conference. The event was moderated by Veronika Strizhak, a well-known Russian TV hostess.

More